
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 10, 1993                   TAG: 9311100139
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

FILE SEARCHERS MAY FACE PROSECUTION

A State Department investigation has turned up evidence that some Clinton administration appointees may have violated the law by retrieving and disclosing information from the personnel files of former Bush administration officials, the department said Tuesday.

Spokesman Mike McCurry said the department's inspector-general, Sherman Funk, had forwarded the findings to the public integrity section of the Justice Department for possible prosecution. A decision by the department is expected shortly.

The investigation was launched in early September after The Washington Post reported that the Clinton appointees had retrieved the stored files of some 160 Bush-era State Department officials, and were gossiping about two of them, Elizabeth M. Tamposi and Jennifer Fitzgerald.

The incident followed allegations during the 1992 presidential campaign that Bush administration officials had searched the passport file of then-candidate Bill Clinton looking for derogatory information about Clinton and his mother, Virginia Kelley.

Tamposi was the Bush administration official in charge of the State Department passport files during the 1992 campaign, and she allegedly headed the search. She later was fired by the Bush White House for her role in the incident. Fitzgerald's file reportedly was empty.

If the Justice Department does decide to prosecute the latest case, it could result in a similar embarrassment for the Clinton administration. Unauthorized retrieval and disclosure of information from personnel files would be a criminal violation of the federal privacy act.

- Los Angeles Times

by CNB